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Thank you for reading this week’s More Pars Than Bogeys Newsletter. If you find it valuable, could you forward this email to a fellow golfer?

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You can click here to read the online version of this week’s newsletter. 

And be sure to catch up on this week’s podcast episodes:

1. #40 [Journey to Scratch] Cultivating Confidence, The Gap and the Gain, and My Next Goal

2. #41. 6 Month Progress Update: Breaking 90, Understanding the Process, and Learning Lessons Thus Far

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how mindset coaching and hypnotherapy can help you get unstuck from the proverbial bunker of poor performance on (and off) the course, click here to schedule a coaching discovery call with me. 

Imagine two golfers, side by side, both making a double bogey on the same hole. 

Frustration sets in, but how they respond changes everything about the remainder of their rounds. 

Golfer A, who possesses a strong bounceback ability, steps up to the next tee, mentally resets, and refocuses. Calm and composed, he birdies the next hole. 

Golfer B, however, lets the mistake linger. 

He’s still thinking about the double bogey, and tension accumulates as he prepares to play the next hole. The result: he’s distracted, tight, and unfocused, which leads to compounding errors and another double bogey. 

The difference?

It’s not skill. It’s the ability to bounce back, reset after a mistake, and stay in control.

Which golfer are you?

In today’s newsletter, you’ll learn what bounceback ability is and why it’s a crucial skill to develop to play better golf. You’ll learn common mistakes many golfers make attempting to bounce back and strategies to strengthen your bounceback ability. 

Let’s tee off!

Bounceback Ability

Failing to recover quickly after a poor shot or mistake has a domino effect on your game. 

When you allow frustration to accumulate and linger, it clouds your decision-making and distracts your focus as you prepare for your next shot.

The result?

You’re more prone to making additional mistakes, which can erode your confidence and negatively affect your ability to recover on the next shot, hole, and round. 

This leads to a lack of trust in your swing and ability, which can lead to further frustration and drain you of the enjoyment the game is supposed to provide. You become easily irritated, mentally exhausted, and emotionally erratic.

Sounds familiar? 

Bounceback ability is the mental and emotional skill of quickly recovering from a poor shot, mistake, or tough hole during a round of golf. 

It encompasses resetting your mind, staying present, and refocusing on the next shot rather than allowing frustration to carry over and impact the rest of your game. 

Great golfers aren’t defined by avoiding errors but by their ability to respond, adapt, and regain control - shot after shot, hole after hole -in response to their mistakes. 

Bounceback ability is the ability to remain in control when unsettling outcomes beyond your control occur. It’s the ability to pause and consciously respond rather than unconsciously react. 

Again, it’s the ability to pause and consciously respond rather than unconsciously react.

A golfer with strong bounce-back ability holds a key advantage: they can mentally reset after a mistake, allowing them to stay present and focus on the next shot with a clear mind. 

If you possess strong bounce-back ability, you avoid letting one shot or hole spiral into a series of poor shots or holes. Even more, you continue to approach each shot with the patience, precision, confidence, and composure needed to execute an effective shot. 

This in and of itself bolsters the likelihood of scoring low and enjoying yourself. 

On the other hand, a golfer with poor bounceback ability struggles to shake off mistakes. 

They carry frustration from hole to hole, which clouds their judgment, increases tension, and affects their swing. This leads to compounding errors, lower performance, and a hit to their confidence. 

Instead of recovering, they often fall into a downward spiral that diminishes their results and enjoyment of the game. The mental burden of not bouncing back keeps them from playing their best and fully enjoying the challenge of golf.

As a Golf Hypnotherapist, I use hypnosis to unlearn and upgrade outdated, habitual ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving that are holding you back from your potential.

Click here to schedule a free Mental Game Strategy session to learn how I can help you make playing to your potential a habit. 

Common Mistakes When Trying to Bounce Back

Let me clarify that a lot of the work necessary to cultivate a high degree of bounce-back ability is done away from the course.

Fortunately, awareness of your destructive mindset programs can help align effective action steps to dismantle them altogether, thus freeing you up to play to your potential. 

When Scottie Scheffler makes a rare bogey and bounces back with two birdies in a row, he’s not chanting some magical word sequence to the Golf Gods to help him achieve such a feat. 

Instead, he’s emotionally resilient and quickly able to lock into his upgraded set of self-talk and beliefs that empower him to remain calm, collected, and focused on his next shot. Additionally, he retains command of his breath, which can act as a tool to defuse an increase in emotion.

The goal isn’t to arrive at a place of positive thinking about the last hole you played poorly, rather, it’s to arrive at a place of indifference or neutrality. It happened, and you can’t go back in time to change the outcome.

You can, however, become indifferent to it, shrug it off, and focus on the next shot at hand. 

Common mistakes many golfers make after a poor hole that ultimately reduces the likelihood of improvement and playing well include the following:

Dwelling on the Mistake: They replay the bad hole or shot in their mind, focusing on what went wrong instead of shifting focus to the next shot.

Rushing the Next Shot: They rush their pre-shot routine to quickly "make up" for lost strokes, leading to poorly executed shots. Been here far too often…

Overcompensating with Aggressive Plays: They take unnecessary risks, like attempting difficult shots or going for the pin when it’s safer to play conservatively. This is done to compensate for the poor previous shot or hole.

Letting Frustration Build: Instead of calming down, they allow frustration to snowball, negatively impacting their mental state and performance on subsequent holes.

Negative Self-Talk: They engage in harsh, critical inner dialogue ("I always screw this up," "I’m terrible"), which destroys confidence and focus. Upgrade your self-talk here.

Changing Swing Mechanics: They start tinkering with their swing or grip mid-round, trying to fix what may not need fixing, which often leads to further inconsistency.

Ignoring the Importance of Breathing: They forget to take calming breaths, which helps manage tension and reset focus before the next shot. Here are my five go-to breathing strategies to maintain emotional control during a round. 

Blaming External Factors: They focus on external distractions, like weather or course conditions, rather than taking responsibility and staying mentally resilient.

Without the ability to reset after a mistake, it becomes difficult to regain positive momentum during the round, making it hard to recover and finish strong.

Let’s discuss how you can begin to develop bounceback ability next.

Ready to harness the power of your mind and the heavily research-backed strategy of visualization to play your best round of golf?

Click here to download My “play your best round” hypnosis audio recording.

7 Strategies to Develop Bounceback Ability

Bounceback ability is the mental and emotional skill of quickly recovering from a poor shot, mistake, or tough hole during a round of golf. 

It encompasses resetting your mind, staying present, and refocusing on the next shot rather than allowing frustration to carry over and impact the rest of your game. 

The first step of resetting and priming yourself to bounce back is acknowledging and accepting what happened on the previous shot or hole.

Acceptance is acknowledging and allowing your thoughts, feelings, or outcomes - good or bad - without resisting or changing them.

It means facing reality and moving forward without judgment or emotional attachment to what just happened.

Achieving a state of acceptance allows you to stay calm, focused, and resilient regardless of outcomes.

In practical terms, acceptance means:

• Acknowledging reality: Whether you hit a bad shot or get a bad bounce, acceptance means recognizing it happened without dwelling on it.

• Letting go of control: You can’t control everything on the course (weather, course conditions, bad breaks), but you can control your response.

• Staying present: Acceptance keeps your focus on the current shot, not the past mistakes or future outcomes.

By accepting mistakes as part of the process, you build mental strength to recover faster.

Once you’ve acknowledged and accepted the outcome, you need to prioritize emotional control. The quickest, most effective strategy for regaining control of your decisions and actions is to find and focus on your breath. 

I detail several effective strategies to use mid-round here, but in short, finding and focusing on your breath for a few breath cycles is all you need to lock into the present and off-gas any pent-up emotion. 

Acceptance and finding your breath are two essential pillars that will empower and enable you to bounce back quickly. Here are additional effective strategies to enhance your ability to reset and refocus. 

#1. Create a Mental Reset Routine: Develop a quick routine to clear your mind after every shot. This can include taking a deep breath, visualizing the next shot, or using a physical anchor like adjusting your glove to signal a reset.

#2. Anchor to a Positive (or Neutral) Affirmation Statement: Engage in positive self-talk immediately after a poor shot or hole. Consider crafting your confidence statement or something similar to: "That was just one hole. I’m still capable of finishing strong" or “One hole doesn’t define me.”

#3. Reframe Negative Thoughts: Instead of dwelling on a bad shot, immediately replace negative thoughts with positive ones. For example, after a double bogey, remind yourself, "I’ve bounced back before; I can do it again." 

I recommend each of my clients create a mental highlight reel of their best drives, approaches, chips, and putts so they can quickly and effortlessly re-live those moments on demand.

#4. Practice Mindfulness: On the course, focus on staying present using mindfulness techniques. Pay attention to your breathing and the club's feel in your hands while also taking a moment to observe (and hear) the beautiful landscape around you. This helps you let go of past mistakes and focus on the next shot.

#5. Embrace Mistakes as Learning Opportunities: Shift your mindset from seeing mistakes as failures to seeing them as learning opportunities. Reflect on what went wrong, adjust, and apply the lesson to the next shot.

#6. Focus on Body Language: Maintain positive body language, even after a bad shot. Stand tall, stay relaxed, and walk with confidence to signal to yourself that you are still in control.

#7. Use a Mental Scorecard: Track how well you bounce back from bad shots, not just your score. This creates a new challenge for yourself and encourages you to improve your resilience throughout the round. 

I prefer a simple 0 - 10 rating scale that encompasses my focus, confidence, and presence during the next shot or hole, with a simple yes or no indicating whether I executed my unique bounce-back mental and emotional routine.

Your Next Step

Every newsletter will conclude with a suggested action step and further resources on the topic we discussed.

After reading today’s newsletter, choose at least one strategy I shared to strengthen your bounceback ability and put it into action in the next round. 

Thank you for reading today’s newsletter.

If you found it valuable, share it with a fellow golfer ready to take their game to the next level.

Until next time,

Paul

P.S. What did you think of today’s newsletter? Reply back / drop a comment below to let me know.

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